Imperial period

Russian Paper Money | Imperial period | 1769-1785 serie

The first banknotes ever to be printed in Russia were printed in 1769. They were made to facilitate money exchange, as large sums in metal coins were hard to deal with. The notes were printed in 25, 50, 75 and 100 ruble variants. Yet, the 75 ruble note was soon put out of circulation because of fraud, as people began scraping out the word "twenty" and writing "seventy" instead. The second emission notes, dating 1774, had smaller sizes and lacked the 75 ruble one.